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NotBornYesterday was one of many readers sending in news that the Indian government has announced it is helping to develop a $35 tablet computer running Linux. "India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production by 2011. The government plans to subsidize the tablets so the cost to students could be $20; and eventually, they hope the cost will fall to $10 per unit. India's human resource development minister, Kapil Sibal, says, 'The motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything.' Using a memory card instead of a hard drive, and running a Linux OS, the designers have managed to keep the price low, and are now looking for manufacturing partners. The tablet can be used for functions like word processing, Web browsing, and video conferencing. It has a solar power option too, which is important in India's less developed areas, though that add-on costs extra."

Just don't be surprised then [sic] the electricity bill will be [sic] much higher then [sic] using some modern hardware.

What information do you have that would remotely support this conclusion?

To make a $35 laptop, they don't have a huge R&D effort making their own parts to compete with Intel and Corsair. They're going to use commodity (read: cheap, reliable, off-the-shelf) components (motherboard, cpu, ram, etc.) that are Linux-supported -- or close enough to be able to add support without too much effort.

Considering that they're going to have a solar-powered option -- with solar power generating about 10-watts per sq ft -- how big exactly did you imagine this laptop?

This community is comprised of people who have already done all the thinking they need to do; furthermore, both the *amount* and the *comparative intelligence* of the thinking of a single slashdotter surpasses the collective mental output of a medium-sized nation of Joe Sixpack, Suzie Handbag, and the other normals. We are each already are experts on any topic that could come up in an article discussion.

Your formula is one step too long for those that inhabit the nerve centers of the beast we call Slashdot.

It seems you put a lot of thought into your post -- which is wrong, for Slashdot. You should already know what to type without thinking. You, sir, are a poseur.

This community is comprised of people who have already done all the thinking they need to do;

You know, I was just about to post a reply to this, then a committed a cardinal sin and thought about it.

In an effort to drag a shred of on-topicness to this though, has anyone seen any proper specs on this device?

The best I've found so far is

According to the details,the tablet will come in three versions of 5, 7, and 9 inches display. It will be packed with 2 GB RAM memory, wi-fi connectivity, USB port and powered by a 2-watt system to suit poor power supply areas.

Have you seen modern hardware? Below a thershold, the lower the cost, the less power it uses. Sure, a cheap laptop using a desktop Intel processor will use more power than a cheap laptop using the latest Laptop Enhanced (tm) processor. But I assure you, a nice little dirt cheap C3 Erza will hardly be noticed by anything.

I'd be pretty shocked at "much" higher. You aren't going to get your pick of first-run 22nm silicon in a $35 device; but you aren't going to get screaming clock speeds, either. I'd assume that you are looking at a more or less standard ARM SoC, probably one of the slightly older ones, manufactured on a slightly older process; but a small die running pretty slowly.

If you wanted the same performance; but were willing to pay $100, you could almost certainly get better efficiency; but this isn't one of those

Much like the super cheap car, once it comes to 1st world countries like the U.S. all of the pesky requirements like product safety will add a 300%+ premium to it. You may appreciate not absorbing your daily dose of lead or radiation, or having the possibility of the whole thing exploding, but if those things don't bother you, probably worth importing them yourself!

I guess it could have just as well an UI like ATMs or, basically, many "feature phones" - buttons around the screen (is it even color? Or maybe just CSTN, etc.?) corresponding to functionality. That would complicate some stuff of course - but it could even have a full mini keyboard? (mobile phone style? Kindle has it) Throw in USB for some external one, they're inexpensive.

Or perhaps touchscreens have become in reality cheap enough, we just aren't allowed to experience it... (certainly it seems they can potentially become cheaper? - massively easier mechanical design, not much addition of electroncic stuff)

I'm really glad from this announcement (and XO-3) - they show what the price really can be. Now, hopefully this category of devices won't be derailed a bit, like what basically happened to netbooks so far...

I'm really glad from this announcement (and XO-3) - they show what the price really can be.

Well, for some definition of "really can be". This seems to be very simil to the same thing that India first announced as a $10 laptop, then revealed not to be a laptop but to be some kind of device with storage and an LCD screen but no keyboard and actually be likely to cost $30. Now its a tablet with a hoped-for initial $35 price -- without any manufacturer lined up, and with nothing cited supporting the $35 price

Quoting from http://news.softpedia.com/news/Indian-Government-Unveils-Quite-Powerful-10-Tablet-148828.shtml [softpedia.com]
"""
At the heart of the 10.5-inch tablet lies an ARM chip. The exact chip set to be used has not been disclosed, but it is known that 2GB of memory will be present to back it up. The display is a color touchscrenn with multi-touch support. Furthermore, the configuration includes cloud storage, 10/100 Ethernet, WiFi b/g , a so-called highly-customized operating system and even support for Adobe Flash. Thus, there will be no issues regarding online videos and interactive educational content. Finally, the device comes with a digital camera and compatibility with OpenOffice.org documents, Adobe PDF and various multimedia formats.
"""

Funny thing is, it will likely have "gnash" installed/enabled as you can really do some education software easily with Flash. Lots of "kids games" too.As there is no "h264" etc. involved, I am sure gnash will have no problem.Of course, if dinosaur Adobe wakes up and codes the actual Flash platform for it, it would be better. Now that would be some real thing to do against Apple, rather than blog-trolling:)

Pics are still less than satisfactory. What goes into this design, and what are the catches ? Slow as hell ? No touchscreen ?

Incidentially the second part of the article is (potentially) revealing:

"The aim is to reach such devices to the students of colleges and universities, and to provide these institutions a host of choices of low-cost access devices around Rs 1,500 ($35) or less in near future," the human resources ministry said at the launch of the computer.

Meaning it's not this tablet that's $35, it's just that they're working on devices like that. Could this mean that they don't actually have device schematics for this device at $35 ?

Thanks for that link, with not only pictures, but some useful specs:"According to the details,the tablet will come in three versions of 5, 7, and 9 inches display. It will be packed with 2 GB RAM memory, wi-fi connectivity, USB port and powered by a 2-watt system to suit poor power supply areas. It will laso have apps like internet browser, PDF reader, video conferencing facilities, open office, sci-lab, media player, remote device management capability, multimedia input-output interface option, and multip

I'm going to have to agree. For $35 I'd pick one up just to see what it does. Even if I had to get a wireless kb/mouse to use it, it would still be an interesting toy. The funny part is, the wireless kb/mouse combo might cost more than the tablet!

Could not agree more. $35 for this would be incredible, at this price point it is even more attractive than simple e-readers. Like any other tablet this is perfect for portable internet browsing. But at this cheap price I would be more comfortable taking it into the kitchen to read recipes or out to the garage to review car repair walkthroughs, those are things I would not do with a $600 iPad.

Though one point I wasn't exactly clear on in the article was the subsidy that India would provide to students

"India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production by 2011. The government plans to subsidize the tablets so the cost to students could be $20; and eventually, they hope the cost will fall to $10 per unit."

I think this is a big deal. Who really believes that outsourcing technology operations to India and China does not have a long-term consequence? With time, India and China will become innovators -- if they have not already. Reportedly, China has already built the world's second-fastest supercomputer, and is fabricating its own chips (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/science/01compute.html).

Imagine, now, young people thoughout the world writing software. What platform would they choose? If I was growing up in India and had an accessible computer for $35, I probably would not want to pay a whole lot more for a Windows computer.

Maybe this tablet does not quite have it right, technologically. But it is a step forward and an indication of intention on the part of the Indian government.

Rightly said!
This is simply an example of countries trying to develop themselves and their resources. It may be shitty compared to what is available in the developed world, but its a start -- we have all paid through our noses for costly micro-processing power that sometimes are pathetically underutilized doing tasks such as browsing and occasional document composition.

Though I am aware that the original article is sorely lacking details, and it seems more a marketing hype, but even if they manage to do take off with this, it will be marvelous and a little help to millions who at this point cannot even hope to achieve a life with basic necessities, leave alone sitting comfortably ordering a powerful computer.

This is not for Americans, nor should it be expected that the hardware would be any comparable to what is considered minimal in America, but its a start; an attempt to introduce a bit of technology so people who would otherwise have no chance to even aim for a middle-class life are empowered.

This is not for Americans, nor should it be expected that the hardware would be any comparable to what is considered minimal in America, but its a start; an attempt to introduce a bit of technology so people who would otherwise have no chance to even aim for a middle-class life are empowered.

It should be. I have customers running my software at their office for whom this would be an ideal system for their employees to use in the field. It doesn't have to be a high-powered computer. It just has to be powerful enough to run a field version of my software, and have functioning wireless or an Ethernet port (either will work).

If the unsubsidized price is low enough, this would have great small business marketability in the U.S.

Well, it will be. once someone's gathered the venture capital finance to acquire a company set up specifically to purchase, import, sell for $200, and (most important) squirrel the profits away in a tax-efficient, highly-leveraged off-shore subsidiary.

I had a friend who was working on dynamically changing advertising screens, but the costs were prohibitive. Assuming a retail markup, a 70 dollar screen-with-wifi jammed under a big block of plexiglass might enable them to do a lot.

Similarly, museums and tours could hand people tablets as they came in, and collect them on the other side. One broke? Whatever, just grab another one off a rack.

A touchscreen computer this small would be great for Point Of Sale in Mexico, as people who normally conduct all tr

Well, this might sound paradoxical, but actually, even 'less developed areas' in India have cellphone connectivity. Those backward areas have patchy electricity supply - the power goes off for almost 10-15 hours per day, on average, in some backward areas. But there is hardly any part of the country that is not covered by GSM cellphones. Sounds paradoxical, but that's how it is - almost everyone carries a phone. Given that, I guess they'll browse through the GSM signal...

I found myself having fainted for dehydration outside a small village in Uttar Pradesh. I came to but was apparantly delirious, blathering wildly about my deadlines - but it was my gestures which were to change my life from there on. My hands, so used to typing out at the desk, had begun to reanact keystrokes in the same manner as the fellow who plays Mozart's hands dash across the pianoforte keys in Amadeus.

A peasent stumbled across my slumped corpse; he last asked me what I was doing in a business suit in the glaring heat of the northern hemisphere in late June (this was about a month ago) . Fortunately he had water, and was able to drag me in to a nearby village. I apparantly spoke about all sorts of computing stuff. I even confessed I dreamt I left comments on tech sites but woke up of course to find none - sombrely the young man, a mere kid in his 20s, got up and left without even a word.

The man knew what was up; after my delirium had passed and I was coherant - a small, $35 Indian Tablet Computer lay infront of me. 'It is the best thing we can do instead of a keyboard' - said Ranvir, who had taken the exact funds from my wallet in exchange for it in the local tech market close to the Ganges. It was then my capitalist attitude morphed into a centre-left smorgasbord from a simple act of kindness. Of course it didn't make economic sense to rescue my incapicitated husk...it did not square with the Rand stuff I'd worshipped so libertarianistically.

Upon squaring together an Internet connection with mere gaffer tape and a mini-co axial carefully hammered into the 3.5mm audio jack...I was on. The world opened up, and as I sat in that little squalid shack which was my temporary home...blogging became something completely new. The egoistic, day-to-day mundane became the selfless and vivid recollection of events in the village who had granted me honorary citizen status. I got to know what broadband would feel like at 56k speed, but not due to poor latency...but instead economy components. Upon blogging my experience with the good samaritan and the villagers, a commenter posted:

"Hey man you should be like the chieftain or leader or some crap? Lead these folks into a revolutionary tech thing! -- Lance"

It was that night that I near-emptied my bank account buying 200 Tablets at $35 - that's $7000 bucks. I gave a tablet to every villager bar a few spares. It was then I set about making speeches about online rights. Having educated the villagers to open source rights, technology issues, we set about changing the world. Our first stop was a pilgrimage to the Nepalese steppes to sabotage a Dalai Lama press conference for publicity, but as about fifty of us packed up to go I received a call from David in editorial back home - my HTC Android! It was still on!

"Pete? Pete. Hi we need you back here in England as soon as possible there's a few urgents things to cover. Can you fly back tomorrow afternoon?"

A tear had already dropped from my face to the Tablet on the nearby bed. Two villagers had entered and were looking at me intently as I had my conversation in English: "Yeah, yeah I can make it...can you wire some cash over; I had some unexpected expenses and..."

Dave was in a hurry and brusque: "Okay, money will be in your account within a few hours. Be back here Tuesday morning - deadlines to fill and all that. Your computer has been pining for you I swear....later man."

Tablet PCs in India changed my life, and though my plans to become the head of a village failed and the depression built upon leaving...the experience shall never leave me.

I've been to rural Indian villages. If you give these guys computers, most of them will sell them to buy new axles for their ox carts or whatever. Most of these people can't read, so what could they do with a computer?

This is wonderful. Talk about crashing through the $100 floor. Was nice when desktops smashed through the $1000 floor.

And there's still much waste in PC design. Look at the size of an average notebook versus a typical desktop, There's huge overprovisioning everywhere in the desktop. Computers have been in our faces for so long that we're not only accustomed to them taking substantial space, we practically demand it. Admit it, contemptuous thoughts about slowness, limitations, and compromises flit thr

And there's still much waste in PC design. Look at the size of an average notebook versus a typical desktop, There's huge overprovisioning everywhere in the desktop. Computers have been in our faces for so long that we're not only accustomed to them taking substantial space, we practically demand it.

That space directly translates into sturdiness. Laptops overheat and die sooner than desktops, unless the desktops are packed tight like laptops (iMacs) then the desktops die sooner.

PC's are built using standard form factors. This allows PC's to have parts easily changed out and/or replaced. Crunching it down as tight as possible would eliminate a lot of choices for upgrades and probably just make it a proprietary device with proprietary components. If that's what you're after, there are many proprietary choices on the market today.

If this thing truly costs $35 it's likely not much better than a calculator. Anything more than that and it didn't actually cost $35. Either someone's eating the cost or the government is subsidizing it.

And for this sort of thing it's always smarter and cheaper to go with something off the shelf. The money wasted on the OLPC project would have been better finding an existing cheap computer. Better yet, that money should have been used improving the quality of schools and education. Computers aren't some kin

Exactly, why innovate or come up with new ideas when there are old things that could potentially do the same thing! You're seriously arguing that they should be purchasing $50-100 desktops and locking them up instead of spreading around $35 ultra portable tablets?

When we talk about a $35 tablet computer, "average price" is not even remotely in the picture. It makes no sense for you to compare averages when we're talking about something extreme.

Don't like ebay? Palm IIIx runs for about $25 at Goodwill. $20 on Craigslist. And $15 at Weirdstuff(and places like it). But I don't know why you don't like ebay, there are a couple IIIx in good shape for $7 on there right now.

Here's a $75 Palm m500 [amazon.com] on the same site you linked. Prefer color and WinCE? Dell Axim x51 runs for about $60 these days, which is coincidentally roughly what it would cost wholesale to produce with the same specs.

I have some idea what this stuff costs from working on the Kindle and other products, especially given that I actively tried to put together a minimalist low-cost tablet/ereader project. It is quite possible to get to a $35 BOM on a tablet computer, but I it won't be a very modern style tablet. sub-500MHz ARM9, no 3D acceleration, 128MB or less RAM, slow flash interface, poor battery life, not multi-touch, and the list goes on. I think with the right software it could be a practical gadget for the right purposes. But most people scoffed at me when I have proposed these kinds of minimalist devices at the places I've worked.

I mean just doing a quick scan of the article it makes it sound like it's more for Indians (dot, not feather) and other 3rd worlders. You know, people that can't blow a thousand bucks on a computer. If it helps improve their standard of living more power to them. (Hopefully it gets further than that One Laptop thing.)

I mean just doing a quick scan of the article it makes it sound like it's more for Indians... and other 3rd worlders.... If it helps improve their standard of living more power to them. (Hopefully it gets further than that One Laptop thing.)

It's weird that this got a "troll" mod, when it's directly to the point. It's especially appropriate in comparison with all the posts saying in essence that it'll be a crappy machine for 1st-world countries. People have missed the point that wealthy populations aren't the intended customers. Don't expect to order one of these from Dell or Amazon. The customers are people whose annual income is less than most/. readers make in a day.

The OLPC comparison is also relevant. One thing this price point should help with is that we might not see a repeat of Microsoft sending in reps to "talk to" the managers looking to order these machines. That was partially effective at limiting the OLPC, but it's clear that this machine is aimed at a market in areas where Windows is available, but people can't afford it even if they can get it free.

This thing's main competitors are cheap phones, for which it is an upgrade. Comparing it with first-world laptops and desktops merely shows cluelessness.

(Actually, comparing it with the iPhone/iPad pair might be relevant. But there's no real competition there, because they're aiming at a market in which an iPhone or iPad costs more than the mean annual income.;-)

Again India, they try to produce super cheap stuff nobody real wants. Why would I buy their junk, when 2nd hand stuff in my country cost the same and is much better? I can already get a 2nd hand PC for almost nothing, but since I earn enough, I want to spoil myself.

India isn't trying to sell you anything. From the article:

The project is part of an ambitious education technology initiative, which also aims to bring broadband connectivity to India's 25,000 colleges and 504 universities and make study materials available online.

I scored an X41 Tablet for about $150 total, with two worn batteries and a busted up stylus. Not a touch screen, but a tablet. Works fine, but that's not $35. I spend more than that for the recovery disk set. Yes, I am that obsessed.

For even $100, this gives Negroponte's dream a run for the money.

India strives for self-sufficiency. It;s not cheap to them, it's affordable and sustainable.

Firstly, the salary for an IT job in India is somewhere around 15-20% what it is here in the UK - even so, someone on that salary in India is earning a good wage. It therefore makes sense that electronics goods would also be proportionately priced.

Secondly, there is a stronger cultural link between wealth and status in India - a man on a high salary will have have no shortage of potential wives knocking at his door - but they are also less materialistic than us. Therefore, the importance you and I might place on the functionality of a device is perhaps less important to an Indian. So please don't judge everyone else by our standards.

Thirdly, India is not known for exporting high-tech goods to the West, it is a country aimed at providing a cheaper-to-hire English-speaking service industry workforce to the West. And because I detect some sour grapes over outsourcing in the tone of your message, please target your wrath at the rich Western CEOs pocketing the cost differential between hiring staff in the USA or Europe than in India - after all, if somebody offered you a higher paid job than what you're in at the moment, you'd at least consider it even if you didn't take it. So why should anyone in India be any different?

Looking at the articles and pics of it, it does indeed have a colour screen.
And your statement brings out my real question:
If india can make a working tablet for $35 that, while probably underpowered, can do web, email, and wordprocessing,
Why are the big companies cheapest products $200 or more?
Hopefully, after (if) these get rolled out in India, the other manufacturers will start competing a little harder.
Also, if this Indian tablet supports flash, I'll have a nice little chuckle.

But I think a lot of price considerations have to do with the fact that most westerners aren't going to buy something with a price point that is "too" cheap. People are used to paying $200 for even the cheapest notebooks/netbooks/tablets, if people see a $35 one, they are probably just going to buy the more expensive one to save on "quality" even if they are the same device.

Of course, this was the same India that created the $10 non-laptop-component-printer that cost $30... So take any reports from cheap electronics in India with a grain of salt...

I would take gladly B&W screen in the least expensive versions; why do we need color for most of the stuff we do on PCs/etc. anyway? (accidentally, the/. page on which I'm writing this reply is completelly greyscale except for yellow "DON'T FEAR THE PUNGUINS"...that's why we need color?)

Cheaper, saving battery, can be made very good even without backlight (saving the costs and even more the battery) - what's not to like?

It's being overseen, designed, and manufactured in India. All of the benefits of outsourcing with none of the overhead.

Joking aside, a $35 tablet would probably hit $100 on a real market, after company and retailer profit. Further, being a government with educational institute ties the development cost is entirely eaten, and not reflected in the price. Add in real packaging and materials and a marketing campaign, and you might actually be pretty

The car does exist you pretentious moron!!! it's called the TATA Nano and it's running on the roads!! do a friggin' google search! and there was never a sub-$100 shuttle!! atleast much better than the stupid NASA running losses!!!

Well, sometimes government gets involved because the private business are too busy running around each other to show any kind of creativity and explore a new market. That is not aways, mind you; not even most of the time. It is just that some times that happens.

Anytime that the government gets involved, it leads to unsustainable projects with no real market, no real innovation, and poor implementation to get a government contract and free money.

Look at Ethanol, sounds great, gas from plants, renewable and good for the environment... Except for the fact it takes more energy to make it than the ethanol contains. But of course the government subsidizes it which leads people to grow corn for ethanol rather than for feed and so taxpayers not only have to pay higher

An ARPANET would have been born and morphed internet with or without government support, its just in the late 60s early 1970s few people owned computers really powerful enough to go online and do anything meaningful. ARPANET was formed not because of some great government insight that private enterprise doesn't have, it was simply because no one else owned enough computers to make it be meaningful.

And how is it worth it for the science? You burn more fossil fuels trying to make the ethanol than you can create in the ethanol! You can't just add more energy to the ethanol, its like in the 1990s when dot-com businesses would sell things at a loss and make up for it in "volume", only rather than a dot-com you have no money invested in it is instead the government stealing money out of your paycheck.

Sugar Cane is another thing totally fucked up by governments in allowing massive tariffs to be placed on it whenever you import it, whenever the government messes with private enterprise, the consumers lose. By placing barriers to free trade in place, it pretty much means that corn syrup is cheaper than sugar cane because the US simply doesn't have enough places to grow sugar cane and because of artificial barriers its nearly impossible to import it.

As for algae, it is in its early stages, it is certainly something to watch.

You know that is a topic that is currently being fiercely debated in the civil society of India.

Just like here in America, you have people who do not want government to be involved at all and then there are those who support government takeover.

However, since the Indian economy has largely been a pseudo-capitalist economy and largely socialist until the early 1990s, the government gets away by doing this without any rigorous study of whether it should be doing it or handing it to private enterprise..

Great! They should be buying up those $35 netbooks floating around India. You know, from all of those companies chomping at the bit to meet the technological educational needs of India's broke youth. As opposed to trying to make as big a profit as possible.

It's a very different perspective when you're someone that is fundamentally ignored by a capitalist market.